Surprisingly, CNN journalists on Thursday did what the networks have largely not been interested in: They looked at Joe Biden’s poor performance in presidential campaigns and his plagiarism problems.
CNN Politics Reporter Chris Cillizza dove into the 1988 scandal in which Biden appeared to directly lift from a British Labour politician named Neil Kinnock. Cillizza noted that the Democrat didn’t even make it into calendar year 1988 before being forced to drop out. He explained, “[Biden] gives a speech that is very similar to a speech that a British Labour politician named Neal Kinnock and it leads to his demise.”
Cillizza played footage of both speeches:
JOE BIDEN: I started thinking as I was coming over here, why is it that Joe Biden is the first in his family ever to go to a university?
NEIL KINNOCK (British lawmaker): Why am I the first Kinnock in a thousand generations to be able to get to university?
Cillizza told viewers that there are other plagiarism issues for Biden. He didn’t go into details, but indeed there are more examples. The September 18, 1987 New York Times went through his problems in law school:
Biden had ''used five pages from a published law review article without quotation or attribution'' and that he ought to be failed in the legal methods course for which he had submitted the 15-page paper.
The plagiarized article, ''Tortious Acts as a Basis for Jurisdiction in Products Liability Cases,'' was published in the Fordham Law Review of May 1965. Mr. Biden drew large chunks of heavy legal prose directly from it, including such sentences as: ''The trend of judicial opinion in various jurisdictions has been that the breach of an implied warranty of fitness is actionable without privity, because it is a tortious wrong upon which suit may be brought by a non-contracting party.''
In his paper, Mr. Biden included a single footnote to the Fordham Law Review article.
As for 2008, Cillizza summerized, “He only ran in one race. This is the Iowa Democratic caucus. It kicks off the nomination. Here he is down at one percent.”
In another surprise moment, someone on CNN agreed with the President. Cillizza concluded, “One thing Donald Trump is right about when he attacks Joe Biden... he’s never really shown the quality of candidate that we expected him to be in either of those races.”
In contrast, the networks have radically downplayed any potential problems for Biden’s latest launch. Since Tuesday night, ABC, CBS, and NBC devoted 26 minutes and 57 seconds to the Democrat. Of that, less than two minutes was on Biden’s unwanted touching of women.
On CBS This Morning, Thursday, Norah O’Donnell gushed over “Uncle Joe... regular Joe.”
A transcript of the CNN segment is below. Click “expand” to read more.
CNN Newsroom
4/25/19
2:32BROOKE BALDWIN: You know the saying? third time is the charm. No doubt Joe Biden and his backers are hoping that is the case here since he's already run for president twice. First time he pulled out within the first four months. So let's get specific on Biden’s previous launches with CNN politics reporter and editor-at-large Chris Cillizza. Okay, so we know him as this senator from Delaware and he first ran back in '88. What happened?
CHRIS CILLIZZA: Okay. So he actually never makes it to 1988 in his first bid, Brooke, because he dropped out in ‘87 following a plagiarism scandal. Now, just a little bit of context. He's not the front-runner in 1987, but in 1987 Joe Biden is only in the Senate for 15 years. He's seen as kind of an up-and-comer. He is considered someone who could be the nominee. But he gives a speech that is very similar to a speech that a British Labour politician named Neal Kinnock and it leads to his demise. Let's play a little bit of sound that gets to the similarities first.
JOE BIDEN: I started thinking as I was coming over here, why is it that Joe Biden is the first in his family ever to go to a university?
NEIL KINNOCK (British lawmaker): Why am I the first Kinnock in a thousand generations to be able to get to university?
BIDEN: Now it is not just that. There is more similarities. Kinnock cites his wife, who was the first to get to university. Biden cites his wife who was the first person in her family to go to college. So, there is a lot there. There was also more that there was other potential plagiarism problems with Joe Biden speeches. He said he had just thought of it. He didn't realizing he was plagiarizing it. And to this day, he has fought it. But it did lead, as you rightly know, to him getting out of the race. Let's play that sound. This is from 1987.
BIDEN: I do it with incredible reluctance and it makes me angry. I'm angry with myself for having been put in the position, put myself in the position of having to make this choice. And I am no less frustrated with the environment of presidential politics that makes it so difficult to let the American people measure the whole Joe Biden and not just misstatements that I've made. Just, Brooke, very quickly, in the “everything old is — everything new is old,” Joe Biden decrying how nasty and negative politics are, oh, boy. Imagine if it was today. So that was in 1988 presidential bid.
BALDWIN: What about 2008?
CILLIZZA: Okay, 2008, different animal. He's been in the Senate a very long time. This was seen as a career capper. Never seen as all that serious a candidate and his showing proved it as we showed here. So he only ran in one race. This is the Iowa Democratic caucus. It kicks off the nomination. Here he is down at one percent. Okay, obviously one, two, three are the ones that mattered in the race. Biden dropped out after this.
...
CILLIZZA: One thing Donald Trump is right about when he attacks Joe Biden — Joe Biden in presidential races, the ‘88 race ended by a plagiarism scandal. The 2008 race he’s never really relevant and drops out after the first vote — he’s never really shown the quality of candidate that we expected him to be in either of those races. So there are questions as he begins that third time to try and get that mantle.
